It was a cold winter afternoon when Yaba Badoe’s novel was placed in my eagerly waiting hands. “At last!” I thought, “something entirely different.” A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars tells the story of Sante, a baby orphan castaway, who is washed ashore and brought into the life of Mama Rose. Raised in Mama Rose’s tribe of lost children, Sante and her adopted family are a traveling performance troupe, each with strange talents — though Sante’s is the most mysterious of all. Though Sante is always on the move from one town to the next, her mysterious past begins to catch up with her and it’s not long before a bamboo flute, jeweled dagger and her faithful bird begin to change the course of her life.

Yaba Badoe’s novel can’t easily be boxed into a genre. Utilizing elements of fantasy and magical realism the work grapples with the timely theme of people smuggling and refugees. A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars shows that Badoe is an exciting and necessary voice in young adult fiction.

A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars, Paperback due in Sept 2017, RRP $17.99, Harper Collins Publishers

Yaba Badoe is an award-winning Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker and writer. In 2014 Yaba was nominated for the Distinguished Woman of African Cinema award.

Make sure to check out the interview with Yaba below.